


3ww

by apocryphic



Series: mcgenji week 2017 [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Early Relationship, M/M, McGenji Week, Post-Recall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 02:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12831801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocryphic/pseuds/apocryphic
Summary: Maybe they don't have a real, honest-to-goodness name for what they are or what they're doing, but McCree's patiently on the path to getting there, and that's some sort of alien idea on its own.---day 1 of mcgenji week 2017: starting out /settling down





	3ww

**Author's Note:**

> THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON ANOTHER MAGIC MCGENJI WEEK RIDE. all of my mcgenji week 2017 fics are going to be taking place from the perspective of early relationship mcgenji - so them trying to get used to it, falling into step with each other, not-quite-established-but-definitely-more-than-just-beating-around-the-bush. SO YEAH o/ hope that explains any weird mismatches in perceived characterization. they are Doing Their Bests.

They've tucked themselves away in one corner of Gibraltar's rec room. McCree still isn't entirely used to the casual contact that's taken on a whole new meaning now that they've come to terms with being… _something_. His heart insists on tripping its way to a quicker rhythm when Genji brushes up against him, and now is no exception — Genji's legs are thrown over his lap haphazardly, carelessly. Every little movement makes McCree hyper-aware of his presence all over again. It isn't unpleasant; McCree wouldn't dare tell him to move.

It's a nice way to spend their time, all kinds of lazy with each other while the rest of the new Overwatch crew dives into the business of debating when and where they'll announce that they're active again, this time under new management. McCree made the decision to dip out of that circus while he still could in favor of some peace and quiet, and Genji elected to join him. He can't really say he minds the company.

"Hmm."

It knocks McCree out of his head enough that he looks over, still loosely holding Peacekeeper and a cleaning rag. Genji's busy inspecting the gap inside his wrist where his shurikens are loaded, acting as if he hasn't said anything at all.

McCree waits. When Genji doesn't go on, he continues to wipe the rag over Peacekeeper's barrel, asking, "What?"

"I was wondering," replies Genji. He pokes inside of his wrist and then turns his hand over as if to see any results. "What were you planning on doing if I didn't persuade you to answer the recall?"

"First of all, you may as well've tied me up and dragged me here —"

"Hardly," Genji protests; more sly, glancing McCree's way, he adds, "Though if you would like to be tied up, I could arrange something."

Warmth prickles over McCree's neck and he chooses the high road. "Alright, 'persuaded'," he allows, figuratively sidestepping the other suggestion for another time, preferably when they're not in the rec room. He tosses the rag onto the table in front of the couch with a noncommittal hitch of his shoulders. "Wasn't planning on ending up here either way, but I guess I never really thought too hard about it. Was just gonna keep on goin'... places. Nowhere specific."

"Anywhere?" guesses Genji.

"Everywhere, more like." McCree thinks better of it as a moment of flicking through his memories provides him with several examples of places he definitely _wouldn't_ want to go back to. "Well. Mostly everywhere."

Genji hums and fiddles with the inside bits of his wrist once more until he finishes what he's doing and, satisfied, closes the compartment. He flexes his fingers absently. "You never considered settling down?"

McCree feels a little caught off-guard, somehow finding it a strange question coming from Genji, but it's only strange until he's reminded that he's not the only one who went aimlessly around on his own. Difference is, Genji had found a place for himself and left it better off than he'd arrived. McCree's pretty sure that if _he_ stopped and tried to call a place home, he'd just end up with a hole in his unsuspecting, naive head from some money-hungry bounty hunter.

"Not really," McCree answers once he's sorted out his thoughts. "Actually, I almost figured I'd be dead by now."

"What would make you think that?"

 _Lemme count the reasons_ , McCree nearly says. He starts ticking fingers off, one by one — "Well, we got Deadlock and Blackwatch, both of 'em death wishes in their own right... And somehow I dodged all the bullets coming my way for that bounty. I suspect I've got about a dozen grim reapers waitin' for me to give up the ghost." He drops all his fingers and swings Peacekeeper's chamber back in place. "Or maybe just one, these days."

Genji seems to find an acute interest in McCree's hands as he flicks at Peacekeeper's hammer restlessly. Both of them have plenty of experience in dancing around death; though, Genji has admittedly been forced to wear his closest call a bit more visibly. Talking candidly about their dangerous pasts and dubious presents comes natural to the pair; talking about much else is another story.

When their eyes meet again, Genji just shrugs.

"You don't give your own capability enough credit," he says.

McCree snorts. "My capability to get into shit, you mean."

"You have a knack for surviving _insurmountable odds_ , then. Is that more to your liking?" Genji pulls his legs off of McCree's lap and tucks his feet underneath himself instead, sitting up straight. Slouching like McCree is, it puts Genji a couple inches higher than him.

"Word you're lookin' for is luck." McCree smiles slightly, looking up at him. "Call it what it is."

"So nitpicky today."

"Woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Somebody stole all my pillows."

Genji surveys him, his teasing gaze going from his eyes and down and up again. McCree refuses to squirm, just leaning a touch more into his space as if in silent invitation, relieved at any other possible turn this conversation might take.

"Are you fishing for compliments?" Genji asks, sudden.

Taken by surprise, McCree laughs a little puff of air, his tension as good as gone. "Not on purpose."

" _Wow_ , Jesse, you are so good at acting like an outlaw." The exaggerated tone has McCree's grin widening. Genji plucks Peacekeeper from his hand, placing it on the table next to the abandoned rag. "To evade bounty hunters as long as you have with such _skill_ , ooh. What a rugged wanderer you are."  

"Now I _know_ you're just trying to get on my good side."

Genji leans in and kisses him quiet, long and slow and demanding his focus. McCree, distracted in an instant and not terribly unhappy about it, forgets what else Genji's said that he might want to deflect, and only reaches out to keep him exactly where he is.

The thing is, McCree can't quite get the idea out of his head.

They're both shit at talking when it comes to some things, which is probably why most of their serious conversations end in the way of kissing or with one of them disappearing, at least until the next night. While usually that seems to put off the problem for another day, McCree's still stuck on the idea of _settling down_ two weeks later. Maybe it says something that Genji was the one asking him if he's ever thought of it, but he isn't about to ask whether that hunch means anything or not.

He thinks about biting the bullet briefly — _hey, Genji, when you were asking me about settling down were you talking hypotheticals or what?_ — and even considers bringing it up as a joke — _I'm willing to compromise on the white picket fence, I don't give a shit about fences_ — but in the end he doesn't say anything at all, because no matter what he says, it'll sound far too real to ever be a conceivable thing. And that's the core of it; it's too much like an impossible thing to want, the same sort of impossible want that he'd felt for Genji before everything had fallen right into place.

Maybe they don't have a real, honest-to-goodness name for what they are or what they're doing, but McCree's patiently on the path to getting there, and that's some sort of alien idea on its own — which is why he absolutely can't ask _why_ Genji wanted to know if he's ever considered settling down. Because maybe McCree has thought about it, at some point in the past while running without a home, fleeting and brief and dreamlike.

This time feels like something serious, though. This time, he's pretty damn sure he might be hooked on it.

 

While packing to head across the world for a mission that could last a week or a month, McCree finds four pieces of Genji's armor in his pile of clothes and a genuinely worrying number of shurikens buried in one of his drawers. He doesn't know how they've gotten there, and doesn't dare ask, though he turns his head to glance over at Genji laying in his bed.

Genji's been spectacularly unhelpful in this packing endeavor, but McCree can't bring himself to be bothered when he won't be there on the mission with him. Genji's stuck around him the whole day. It's flattering, in some funny way that makes him think of shared living spaces and only one bed instead of two shitty bunks in two separate rooms and a hallway separating them.

McCree's face heats, and he looks away before he can be caught staring.

"Are you done already?" Genji asks, too quick on the draw.

"Not yet," he says, lamenting; he knows he's been caught and settles his attention again on Genji, who sits up with a smile playing at his lips. _Looks good on him_ , McCree muses, not for the first time. "I was thinking."

The smug expression disappears, replaced with a careful curiosity. "Yes?"

"You asked me a couple weeks ago, if I'd ever thought about settling down?" McCree itches to _go_ anywhere that he wouldn't have Genji watching him while he tangles out the words he's been working on for two weeks. He keeps rifling through clothes, tossing them in his bag. Another piece of armor tumbles onto the bed and his face _burns_. "I fibbed, just a li'l," he admits. "I said I'd never considered it."

"But you have," says Genji. He picks up the armor that fell, scrutinizing it.

"See, it's never been nothing serious, and not 'til long after Blackwatch," McCree says, hasty. "Didn't see the need to go anywhere else when I had that already. And didn't ever expect to leave."

Genji blinks, like waiting for the other shoe to drop. "So?"

" _So._ " McCree's throat goes a little dry. He clears it. "Never really thought about it, except — 'til recently, I s'pose."

Something must click into place after a few seconds, because then Genji says, oddly blank, "Oh."

Genji doesn't say anything _else_ for quite a long time, to the point where McCree can hear his heartbeat in his ears and feel the warmth of the flush on his skin. He keeps his breathing even, keeps sorting through the clothes, watches Genji's fingers play around the edges of the armor piece he's got.

It shouldn't feel like so _much_ , McCree thinks, just talking about the future. Except the future he's talking about isn't just his future, it's something that could be theirs, and the gravity of it all settles on McCree's shoulders. They haven't been together that long, have they? McCree feels like maybe he might have just pulled the emergency eject lever on whatever it is they're doing.

"I might have also been thinking of it," Genji says eventually. "Recently."

And just like that, everything's not near as dire.

The quiet is harmless now, nothing hanging over either of their heads. McCree reaches, takes the armor from him. Puts it to the side with the rest of what he's found. He doesn't miss the tiny, passing touch Genji gives his knuckles as he pulls his hand away.

"Was a helluva roundabout way of saying it was on your mind," says McCree, fighting a smile. "Asking _me_ if I'd ever considered it —"

"You made the conversation impossible," Genji complains, dropping back against the mattress in defeat. " _Impossible_!"

"Ain't my fault I ain't had a house of my own since I was..." He tries to do the mental math and ends up making a face instead. "Doesn't matter. I was just being honest."

"You could have played along instead of shooting it down immediately."

"I didn't even know we were _playing_ anything, honey, you gotta be more obvious —"

"You told me that you thought you would be _dead_ already."

McCree breaks finally, unable to help his laughter, Genji's eyes shining with similar amusement (and a touch of relief too, for just a second, nearly unseen). He drops a knee onto the bed and climbs closer, catching one of Genji's hands lightly in his own. Thumb moving in circles against his palm, McCree leans over him with a grin.

"Now you know I really wasn't fishin' for compliments," McCree says.

Genji reaches up with his free hand to thread strands of McCree's hair behind his ear for him. It has both of them holding their breath until he's done for some stupid, silly reason, and McCree kisses him softly afterwards, the barest brush of lips that turns into a firmer press once Genji gets a hold around the back of his neck, reeling him in to make it last a little longer.

"I'll miss you," Genji murmurs when they part enough to speak. It gets McCree's heart kicking up double-time all over again. Three words, easier on the tongue than they have any right to be.

"Miss you more," McCree says back, and kisses him again.

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from alt-j's song, 3ww


End file.
